Hey, remember when my dog slid down the stairs and dislocated his hip? And we spent around a grand total to have it put back? And then it came right back out and he had to have surgery?

Okay, it didn’t come RIGHT back out. During a visit to get his bandage re-wrapped, someone finally thought to tell me that his hip might come back out. I believe my exact internal monologue was, “You have got to be fucking shitting me.” If I had known that right off the bat, I would’ve just opted for surgery, which cost more but there wasn’t any question on if it would work, and the recovery time would’ve been shorter than the bandage wearing time. Anyway, when they took the bandage off they told me to continue carrying him around and keeping him isolated when he’s alone for two weeks, and if it doesn’t come out in that time frame, it’s probably fine.

We made it one week, five days. Now i’m sure you’re like, “You irresponsible ho, what did you let him do?” Chester jumped back onto his hind legs, tried to turn, and that’s all it took. And this is after he took it upon himself to leap onto a few couches the second our backs were turned. So the answer is yes, I am a horrible mother.

Thanks to Care Credit we were able to afford the surgery, but his doctor ended up doing an emergency c-section and a few other emergencies that day, which was a Friday, so we had to take him home for the weekend and try to keep him doped up. Chester lost about six pounds during this whole thing, and it was mostly because every time he had to go to the vet, he would be pissed off and refuse to eat/he was in too much pain to care. He wouldn’t eat at all that night and I had to literally pry his jaw open just to get him to take his regular meds and his pain pills. Chester would swallow the kitchen sink if I let him, so him not wanting to eat made me really sad (that and the fact that he would yelp in extreme pain whenever he had to be moved).

After his surgery, he was only out of it for a day or two before he started to perk back up, eating normally, and all that jazz. We had to do physical therapy on him, playing with his joints to keep them moving since he had barely started to put his foot down before he hurt himself again, so he had been walking on three legs for over a month at this point. We also had to try and put a heating pad on him. All of that was very fun and just as well received as you might think.

During the surgery, the doctor found that the tendon that connects the leg bone into the hip socket was completely snapped, and he had a bunch of turn butt muscles. That means that it had no chance of staying in, and he was in way more pain than we thought and that he let on. Chester is a trooper and despite the jaw prying and grumping about the therapies, he was so good through all of this. I love my dog.

Chester a few days after surgery:

Grudgingly (look at that face) accepting the heating pad:

And this is how I knew he was better. He won’t jump on the bed (and he also won’t sleep with us at night anymore, boo), but after a week he started wanting to nap on it so I pick him up and put him on it sometimes (he can get down fine). Chester’s favorite toy is the bed. He likes to burrow under the covers and thrash around, and we ask where Chester is and when he pops back out he’s like “Dude, here I am!” One day he seemed to realize that his hip was okay and he could once again roll over on his back and kick back and forth like an overturned turtle or something:

And now he is mostly back to normal. He sometimes runs on three legs still because it’s easier, and he has a wicked 18 o’clock shadow where his fur is growing back. But he doesn’t have to sleep in a pen anymore and since he’s not doped up and asleep all the time his personality, of which he has a lot, is back in full effect.

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After being so busy with all things MoFo, it was nice to take a week off. I don’t have to answer emails or post a bunch or think up ways to wax nostalgic about certain products for giveaways! But I really did enjoy working on the MoFo team, and I loved putting together giveaways for everyone because people love winning things. It doesn’t matter if you win $5 worth of stuff or $50 – winning things makes you feel good! Plus, you know, free shit.

During October I barely took any photos, which means I have very little backlog to share!

My birthday was the 27th, and for reasons I won’t go into, it was not something I wanted to deal with. It’s not a getting old thing, holidays in general send me into a panic attack just thinking about them, and a day that’s supposed to be about me? Vom. I just wanted to hide in my room and die, but my father-in-law MADE me open presents (I got a tofu press!). Hyperbole and a Half posted a new entry that was, funny enough, about being depressed. And despite my saying, “Stop trying to make a big deal out of it!”, Brian made me a cake. He ran out of room so there’s no ‘deal’ on it.

He showed me how the cake was broken, and obviously the ganache was too warm when he poured it…I almost fell over laughing. It was just what I needed, and it was delicious! Chocolate covered chocolate with chocolate chips.

Halfway through the month, Brian found out that the drive-in was showing double features of horror/Halloweenie movies every weekend (we missed the first weekend and Brian is pissed, Alien and The Thing). The first one we went to was a Freddy vs. Jason with House of 1000 Corpses. The very last weekend was Rocky Horror followed by Army of Darkness. I quickly found out it is pretty much impossible to Time Warp in a car seat. And yes, we froze our faces off even with a blanket and the engine running during intermission! But totally worth it.

We got our Teal Cat in the mail! I took its photo in the cat chair, a chair I paid $3 for at a charity rummage sale that the cats can claw to hell, and it’s draped with blankets because the chair is hard to vacuum fur off of.

This is our new dog, Fawkes. I have been looking at Petfinder for most of the year, but I didn’t actively start looking for a new dog until a few weeks ago. Brian had his eye on a Corgi, but she was adopted by the time we made it out to the pound. We met both dogs on Saturday at Petsmart, the corgi was sweet and not shy and seemed so perfect, I knew it would be likely that she would be adopted by the time we were able to get our application in. When we went into the store to buy pet food, I saw they had more dogs in the back. I recognized Fawkes from Petfinder and immediately went over and held him. Fawkes has quite the sob story, he and his dog friend were found tied to a pole in the alley behind his owners house. Yes, some dirtbag did that, and then didn’t bother bailing them out. So naturally he is kind of scared and not trusting, but he is so sweet and tiny. He currently only weighs six pounds, because not surprisingly, his former owners didn’t like to feed him (or bathe him or give him toys). He is all ribs under that fur! As soon as I held him, I felt it. My dog. Mineminemine.

We named him Fawkes for a few reasons:

1. Several people said that he looks like a black fox in his Petfinder photo.
2. We saw him at Petsmart on the 5th of November, which is Guy Fawkes day.
3. I am (non-romantically) in love with Wil Wheaton, so I am thrilled to have a dog with the same name as his character from The Guild.

We have to wait to give him a bath because he just got fixed, so pardon his greasy appearance. I can’t wait to pack some weight onto him and have him groomed.

Also yes, he is a yorkie/yorkie mix, that is just a coincidence. I was just like, “Hey dog, do you have emotional baggage? Cause if so, I have a motley crew for you to join!” And he responded by going limp in my arms and that was really the end of it all. He is totally chill with his new fur-family and even the cats (minus Genghis) aren’t bothered by the new addition.